Back in Jacksonville, Florida

Named for an erstwhile Governor of Florida a couple centuries ago, Jacksonville was my destination for a work trip for couple days.

Situated on the north east corner of the panhandle of Florida state it is the largest city in the state with over 1M residents calling it home and also the largest city by land mass in all the United States.

The trip was at the onset of spring and the temps locally were downright balmy to humid at times. It reminded me of Hawaii with its random showers that punch down to cool the atmosphere a tad then followed by those seaside breezes.

The downtown where most of the commercial hub is sits on either shore of the St John's River which has quite a wide swath and criss crossed by about six bridges that I could see. I was able to walk over the Main Street bridge which is a bascule design that splits open to allow tall sail boats to pass without hitting the deck.

The downtown is somewhat compact with increasing gentrification visible as you start walking out from the core. The retail action is not pronounced which can be a challenge if you are on foot so having an automobile under your ass always helps. I could not see any major transit activity other than a people mover on a short 3 miles track that connects few parts of the neighborhood with city center.

As far as food goes there is food trucks that frequent the commercial district to allow workers to find eclectic nourishment. For dinner the team picked a local (I guess southern) establishment called Blacksheep with a rooftop. Made for some nice ambience and I tried the local shrimps and grit. The crustacean I was told was sourced from a Naval beach town called Mayport. The company was enjoyable and the scenery too.

Below are some vistas of my JAX (as some call it and is the airport sign) episode -

View from the monorail

Downtown viewed from the south shore

Main street bridge

dusk

Shrimp and grits

Sun then Moon then Venus setting

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